$20,371

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CasinoRPG is a vast, persistent virtual world that goes far beyond your average casino game. It combines the best elements of role-playing, tycoon and casino games into an experience never before seen on the web. Best of all, this game isn't just an idea. We are prepared to begin beta testing shortly after the conclusion of this Kickstarter.

Generally Speaking

CasinoRPG is built with the latest in web technologies, often grouped under the term HTML5. What this means for players is that there is no need to download the game, run Adobe Flash, open a Java applet or install a plugin like Unity Player. You simply point your browser (on virtually any modern device) to the CasinoRPG website, and you are instantly loaded into the game world, right where you left off. This allows us to do some amazing things that have never been possible before, like providing the same great game experience across devices, while being able to play with your friends in real-time, no matter what device they are playing from.

Real-time syncing between devices and platforms.

More Technical

For all the hackers out there, here's a little detail about our stack: Javascript. The front-end is of course all Javascript, rendering the game on the HTML canvas element and talking to the server through WebSockets using the Isogenic Game Engine. We are using Node.js on the back-end and a combination of MongoDB and Redis for the data storage. These are some fairly new, polarizing technologies. However, we have been using all of them in production for over a year. We specifically designed the system this way, because these are the right tools for this job, not because they are the new trendy tools.

GoldFire Studios is an independent game studio founded in 2008 in Oklahoma City. We are focused exclusively on developing games for the web, and we are passionate about moving the web forward through amazing gameplay experiences in the browser. Under the GoldFire Studios name, we have developed two games (PokerRPG and BC Wars) as well as a community-based game platform that CasinoRPG is being built on top of - GoldFire Network. CasinoRPG is an ambitious departure from our previous games. However, it is based on many of the same technologies, and nothing would ever move forward if nobody was willing to take the ambitious next step.

James Simpson is the founder of GoldFire Studios and developed his first web game at the age of 13. For the last decade-plus, James has been developing games and game related products for the web that have reached millions of players all around the world.

Luke Simkins started creating games when he was in high school, over a decade ago. He has also been involved with web startups ever since, leading development on projects for clients such as Warner.

Since we focus on creating the most community-centric games possible, we wanted to partner with the people that would be part of that community. Traditional investment and game publishing can be very restrictive, and interests don't tend to align. By having the community partner with us to make this game a reality, we are able to take CasinoRPG in the direction that you want it to go, not the direction that an investor thinks will get them the greatest return.

That being said, we are different than most games on Kickstarter for a very key reason: we have already developed the majority of the game. This isn't an idea or a prototype, this is a game we've been hard at work on for the good part of this year, and we need your help to finish the game and launch it. We've laid the groundwork, now we need your input to take it from a good game to a great game.

We want to make a game that is truly transformational, and it takes a lot of hard work from a lot of different people to make that happen. In order to make a great game, we need to go above and beyond on the quality of art, music and content produced. We are also building an expansive online world that has to be hosted on servers - a very bandwidth intensive proposition. In addition, if we go over our goal, we have a long list of features and content we would love to add into the game (stretch goals will be revealed as we start approaching our goal).

Risks and challenges

GoldFire Studios has over a decade of experience in both the web and game development space. Our core team may be young, but we have a wealth of experience that will aide us in facing any challenges that arise, and as experience has shown us, a few are bound to. In addition, we have already been hard at work for over a year on CasinoRPG and the infrastructure needed to make it a success. We have put in long days and weekends, foregoing salaries we could earn at other jobs and funding development through our savings. We will continue to invest our time, money and passions until CasinoRPG is a success, and well beyond that.

The Technology - We are developing on top of cutting-edge technologies, both on the server and client-side. These technologies can change at a rapid pace, and this presents risks. Changes could come up that force us to re-architect certain parts of the game, and this could potentially lead to delays. One of the decisions to wait until this late in development to launch the Kickstarter campaign was so that we could mitigate this risk early on, and we are constantly working to stay ahead of the curve on future updates that could affect our development.

The Assets - Our previous games haven't had near the level of assets (art, music, sound effects, etc) that CasinoRPG has. While we have created the early set of assets and programmed the majority of the game, there is still a lot of artistic work to be done. Creative work by its nature is uncertain, and this is an area that can lead to delays. If this becomes an issue, we've got partners with a wealth of talent that we could access and contract to help lift the burden from our current artists.

Focus - When creating a new type of game that dabbles in multiple genres, focus can become a challenge. The biggest challenge here will be sticking to the core scope of the game, while keeping the flexibility to add and expand after launch. We have a lot planned, and we will need help from the community to keep us focused on what you want to see most.

While we have thoroughly planned ahead for any risks or challenges that could arise, there is always the chance that unforeseen challenges can arise that could cause delays. We will do everything in our power to mitigate these and will continue to communicate transparently throughout the process.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $1,000 or more
About $1,000

Our artist will draw you or whomever you want and you will become a prominent NPC character in the game + print of your custom character autographed by the team + 5,000 Casino Points + all previous rewards (physical goods ship by April 2013).